Good morning. As we find our
seats, we're going to open this morning's service with hymn number
21 from your Spiral Gospel Hymns hymn book, number 21. So let's all stand together and
we'll sing hymn 21. God the Father and the Son and
the Spirit, three in one. in eternal ages past, made a
covenant sure and fast. God my Father chose his own in
the person of his Son, and ordained that I should be one with Him
eternally. God the Son agreed to come in
the flesh to bring me home. He would keep God's holy law,
And retrieve me from the fall. Christ did love so willingly,
? Stood as my great surety ? For my price he offered blood ? To
appease the wrath of God ? God the spirit heavenly dove ? Promised
to come down in love bringing life and peace and grace to the
chosen purchased race. He seeks the lost, heals the
lame, and he brings us to the Lamb by his mighty sovereign
call. God's elect are gathered all. This poor sinner is secure, for
God's covenant will endure. It is sealed by God's own word,
by His Spirit and His blood. Blessed Holy Covenant God, I
am yours by ties of blood, ties of grace and ties of love. Hold me to my God above. Please be seated. RG? I may speaking to you this morning
from Mark. Chapter 5. Mark. Chapter 5. Beginning in verse 25. At a certain
woman. which had an issue of blood 12
years, and had suffered many things of many physicians, and
had spent all that she had, and was nothing better, but rather
grew worse. When she had heard of Jesus,
came in the press behind and touched his garment, because
she said, if I may touch but his clothes, I shall behold. And straightway the fountain
of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she
was healed of that plague. And Jesus immediately, knowing
in himself that virtue had gone out from him, turned himself
about in a press and said, who touched my clothes? And his disciples
said unto him, thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and
sayest thou, who touched me? And he looked round about to
see her that had done this thing. But the woman, fearing and trembling,
knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him
and told him all the truth. And he said unto her, Daughter,
thy faith hath made thee whole. Go in peace and behold of thy
plague. Father, we come before you this
morning, Father, asking that you'd open your word to our hearts,
Father, and our ears. We ask, Father, you'd be with
Jennifer Myers this morning, Father, that you'd raise her
up from a bed of affliction or restore her to health, Father,
and you'd give her back to her family, Father, and to this church.
Watch over us, Father. Be with Greg as he's away, Father,
and bring him safely home, we ask in Jesus' name, amen. Now, the primary purpose of the
scriptures is to present Christ. This is the testimony of Jesus
Christ. The Lord told the Pharisees,
you do search the scriptures, because in them you think you
have eternal life, and they are they which speak of me. And Christ
is the centerpiece of this account. He's the great physician. He's
on his way to raise a young lady from the dead. But he always
has time for his children. when it says he turned himself
about to look for her. He knew who this lady was. He'd
known her since before time ever was. She's one of the ones that
God gave to the Lord Jesus Christ. She was accepted in the beloved. So the Lord Jesus Christ is definitely
the centerpiece of this whole account. But there is a secondary
application. Because we can see ourselves
in this lady. If you look close enough. If
the Lord will bless us with the with the spiritual eyes to see
that this lady represents the whole life of a child of God. From the Covenant of Grace to
eternity forever. All of it is right here in this
one account for the children of God. Look at verse 25. And a certain woman which had
an issue of blood. Now an issue of blood was almost
as bad as leprosy. Everything this lady touched
became unclean. Anything that touched her, whether
by accident or on purpose or whatever, became unclean. We're
like that. We come into this life with an
issue of blood, and we're going to get into that in a minute.
go into everything and the rules and regulations that this lady
had to live by. She couldn't go to the temple.
She couldn't go to the synagogue. She couldn't have a family. Everything
that this lady came in contact, she made it unclean. And that's
us. We come into this world as sinners. We live as a sinner and we die
as a sinner. It's unavoidable. It's unavoidable. Only the children of God know
this. We know it by personal experience. In Genesis chapter one, whenever
God created the heavens and the earth and all that in him is,
he laid down certain laws. The sun would always come up
in the east. It would always set in the west.
Rain will always fall. Springtime and harvest will always
come. And one of these laws was this,
that all of creation would bring forth after its own kind. That's what people call the law
of nature. He says, let the beast of the
earth, the crawling things, the creeping things, everything,
bring forth after its own kind. And the next verse says, and
God said, let us make man. in our image and in our likeness
and give him dominion over the world. Genesis chapter 2 and
verse 7 says, and the Lord God formed man from the dust of the
ground and breathed into his nostrils a breath of life and
man became a living soul. There he is, Adam, red earth. God has breathed into his nostrils
a breath of life and Adam is alive. And then God made a woman
to be Adam's helpmate, to go down through time with him, to
help him, to work together, to be one flesh, to be all the things
that ladies mean to their husbands. And they had one rule, one law. And the Lord God commanded the
man saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely
eat. But of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day
thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. Now, that's pretty
clear, isn't it? Eat the fruit and you die in
that same day. That's unequivocal. There's no
getting around the fact that if you eat it, you're a goner.
Well, we know what happened. We know that the serpent deceived
Eve. And when the woman saw that the
tree was good for food and pleasant to the eyes and a tree to be
desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and
ate of it and gave to her husband with her and he did eat of it.
And the eyes of both of them were open. and they knew that
they were naked. Paradise lost. Wherefore, as by one man, sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, so that death passed
upon all men, for that all have sinned. It's not been that long
ago that Adam was just a little pile of dust laying on the ground.
Now he wants to be as God. Adam is in rebellion against
God. Adam is no longer, no longer
an image of God. Adam is an enmity against God. Adam has transgressed the law
of God. He has willfully done the only
rule that they had. Ephesians chapter 2 and verse
12 is a picture of Adam. He is without Christ. He's an alien from the commonwealth
of Israel. He's a stranger to the covenants
of promise. He has no hope and he's without
God in the world. Up to this point, Adam had unlimited
fellowship with God. God brought all the animals to
Adam, Adam named them, and they walked and talked in fellowship
one with another, Adam and God. That's over with now. Adam has
died because God said, in a day ye eat thereof thou shalt surely
die. Adam is estranged from God. He's no longer in fellowship
with God. He is at enmity with God. He's a carnal man, and scripture
says that to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually
minded is life and peace, because the carnal mind is enmity against
God. It's not subject to the law of
God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the
flesh cannot please God. And that's where Adam is now. He's in the flesh. Adam has died
spiritually. He's no longer capable of fellowship
with God. He's enmity. Now, one of the
signs of enmity is what? When you don't like somebody,
you're defensive about them, right? You're expecting criticism
or whatever. You're on the defense. Now the
eyes of both of them are open and they know they're naked.
They know what's happened. And the Lord God was walking
in the garden in the cool of the day and Adam hid himself. And the Lord said, Adam, wherefore
art thou? In that he said, I heard thy
voice in the garden. And I was afraid. And I hid myself
because I was naked. And the Lord God said, who told
thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof
I have commanded you that you shall not eat of it? Enmity is
not only defensive. Enmity will blame everybody that
they can blame and never take any of the responsibility themselves. The woman. The woman thou gavest
to be with me, God, I was doing good by myself. You put her in
my life. The woman that thou gavest to
be with me, she did give me and I did eat. Adam is no longer
in fellowship with God. And it went downhill from there.
And God drove the man from the garden of Eden. And Adam could
not get back in. There's no way, excuse me, there's
no way that Adam's going to make it back through the garden. Why
is that? Because God put a cherubim with a flaming sword in a gateway.
And out of all the things that you don't want to do, number
one is get crossways of a cherubim, especially with a flaming sword.
So Adam's stuck out in the world. There he is. He's out of fellowship
with God. He's in rebellion against God.
And he is at enmity with God. Genesis chapter five. Genesis chapter five and verse
one. This is the book. of the generation
of Adam in the day that God created man in the likeness of God made
he him. Male and female created he them
and blessed them and called their name Adam in the day when they
were created. Now that day is gone forever
for Adam. Like I said, he's alone in the
world without Christ. He has no hope. He's alone in
the world without God, no longer fellowship, no longer able to
commune with God one-on-one. That's who he is today. Verse
three, and Adam lived 130 years. and begat a son in his own likeness,
and after his image, and called his name Seth. I don't care where
a person is from. I don't care what color they
are, red, yellow, black, white. I don't care what country they
live in. Every one of us with the exception
of one man. The Lord Jesus Christ was conceived
by the Holy Spirit. Everyone else that's ever been
born and ever will be born, the blood of Adam flows through our
veins. We're in an image of a fallen
Adam. We're in an image of a rebellious
Adam. We're in the image of an Adam
who no longer has fellowship with God and doesn't care. That's
why the scripture says that we are shapen in iniquity and in
sin that our mother conceive us. Scripture says that the wicked
are estranged from the womb. They go astray as soon as they
be born, speaking lies. There's not a just man in all
the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. The heart is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? All
have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That's the
way we come into the world. We have that in common with this
woman in Mark chapter five. We come into this world born
a sinner. We stay a sinner and we die a
sinner. And unless God intervenes, we'll
never know that. We'll never know that we sin
unless God intervenes and opens our eyes to our need for redemption. So that is a parallel between
us and this lady, verse 26, and had suffered many things of many
physicians and had spent all that she had and was nothing
bettered, but rather grew worse. That's the story of all of us.
Every one of us here have tried everything in the world to get
some kind of peace. Some way to live with ourselves. Some of us went to psychiatry,
some of us went to marriage counselors. Most of us wound up in free will
religion. And all we learned in free will
religion is that we had the authority and the ability to tell God yes
or no. So that makes us as God, doesn't
it? If God wants to do everything
he can to save us, and the Holy Spirit wants to do everything
to save us, and the Lord Jesus Christ has done everything to
save us, and we still say no, then that makes us as God. There's no peace there. It's
a delusion and a trap and a stumbling block. It's somewhere that we
went looking for peace of mind, looking for why we live and die,
why children get sick. And it did not give us the answer. So we moved on to reformed religion. Walked in that church and looked
around and thought, wow, this is it. There's a great big banner
hanging over here that said, sola scriptura. Scripture alone. Now, that's profound, isn't it?
Right over here is another big banner hanging there that says,
sola fide, faith alone. Man, that's the answer. And right
behind the pulpit, a great big banner hanging there that says,
sola gratia, grace alone. This is it. Now, that's not a
funny story. The last time I preached in Nevada,
I preached in a church like that. with the banners and everything
else. This is finally peace, faith
alone, grace alone, scripture alone, Christ alone, and we're
so happy. But then they tell us that the
Ten Commandments are a rule for our lives. And we got sense enough
to know that's never gonna work. None of us can keep the law.
That's a dead end street and right at the end of the street
is a big sign that says, curse it is everyone that continueth
not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do
them. Galatians 3.10. No peace. No peace. So we moved on to Calvinism. And you thought this is the answer
to everything. If I read enough books, if I've
got enough books in my library, if I can just get a small understanding
of the Greek language, because after all, man does not live
by bread alone, but every word that proceeds out of the mouth
of God, and I can't really take the preacher's word for it, I
need to be able to look at it and read it in the original. This is it, peace at last. But there's no comfort there.
You're brought to the fact that Christ kept the law and let you
know in your heart, in my heart, that I still sin. Well, maybe
I'm not saved after all. I mean, after all, the Puritan
wrote books that thick and that square on if you commit one little
bitty sin, you're going to hell. So where does that leave me?
It leaves me in a place where I have no comfort. I have no
joy in the Lord Jesus Christ. I just learn and learn and learn
and learn and don't know nothing about peace with God. So this is a parallel with us. This lady tried everything in
the world and nothing helped. I was worse off than I was before
I ever tried anything. You see what I'm showing you?
This lady, our lives parallel everything in her life. This
is the history of a child of God. You come into the world
a sinner. with an issue of blood, thanks
to Father Adam. You know something's not quite
right, but you don't really know what it is. You see other people
that are happier than I am, other people that are not so consumed
with being the best at what they do, and yet they're still happy. So you know that somewhere, somewhere
there has to be an answer. Man is an inquisitive animal.
And they'll look and they'll look and they'll look and they'll
never find peace anywhere but Christ. They never will. Verse 27. When she had heard of Jesus. That's the answer right there.
When the Holy Spirit borns us again and gives us ears to hear
and eyes to see, then we know that this is the answer for everything
right here in the Lord Jesus Christ. And what do we hear? When we were in free will, they
told us that God loves everybody in the world. But we hear Jesus
when he prayed in the garden in John chapter 17. And he said,
I pray not for the world, but for those in it that thou hast
given me. That's what you hear from the
Lord Jesus Christ. And you hear that he died for
the sins of the whole world. And all you have to do is just
let him into your heart. But the child of God hears the
voice of the angel of the Lord when he said, Joseph, thou son
of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that
which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall
bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, because
he shall save his people from their sin." That's what a child
of God hears about Jesus. And with an eye of faith, with
a born again eye of faith, and a born again ear to hear, What
does a child of God learn about the Lord Jesus Christ? Everyone
in this room that knows Christ is able to look and see Him on
Mount Calvary when the Roman soldiers took Him and nailed
Him to the cross and raised Him up between heaven and earth.
And you know, I know, that it's because of me that He's doing
this for me. And then you read that the people
sat down to watch Him there. The Son of God, the Lamb that
taketh away the sin of the world, nailed to a wooden cross, the
mediator between God and man. the rose of Sharon, the lily
of the valley, the bright and morning star, the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. And there he is nailed
to a cross and spit on and being made fun of because of my sin. And the child of God sees all
of the wrath of God come down on the Lord Jesus Christ. You
see the the justice of God. Bow down on him and and break
him. I mean a thing we can never understand,
but we can see it happening. We can see God's wrath and God's
hatred for sin being placed on him. And then we see that God
made him to be sin. For me, who knew no sin, that
I might be made the righteousness of God in him. And when God made
him to be sin, the child of God hears him cry out, my God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me? And we know it's because of us. We know that he has paid for
everything I ever did in my whole life and everything I ever will
do. The Lord Jesus Christ is suffering
to pay for that. And then the child of God hears
the most blessed thing we will ever hear. The most blessed thing
that a child of God can understand that when he has stood up under
the wrath of God and he's paid the utmost price for sin, it
is finished. And that's peace. That's peace
with God, that's peace with ourselves, that's peace with Jesus. We've
come to the end of the road and it ended with it is finished. He's not just done his part. He's done my part also. There's
nothing left to do. And you know, it's a good thing
that that's true, and I'm going to tell you why. There's a child of God hanging
on a cross next to our Lord Jesus Christ. He has confessed with
his mouth the Lord Jesus. And he believes in his heart
that God will raise him from the dead. He said, Lord, remember
me when thou comest into thy kingdom. Now here's a man. That'll never be a better father.
He'll never be a better husband. He'll never be a better human
being. He'll never be what the Pentecostals
call a prayer warrior. He'll never be a sunbeam for
Jesus. All he can do is hang on that
cross and suffer And hold on to this one promise. It is finished. And then he'll die. Out of everyone in the whole
history of creation that should understand that it would be him.
He's not in a position to do anything so much for Jesus doing
his part. Now we got to do ours. There's
nothing he can do. That's what the child of God
hears about Jesus. And along with hearing about
Jesus, along with the new birth, comes the desire to go to Him. The desire to be comforted, the
desire to lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily
beset us. To push through the crowd, the
family, Ken folks, the brothers and sisters and mothers and dads
and friends who like us the way we are unsaved. And he'll tell
us, well, I don't know why you're so concerned about religion,
because if anybody's going to go to heaven, son, it's going
to be you. They don't even realize that
they're between you and the Lord, but you'll move them out of the
way. When Christ calls you, there's nothing going to stop you from
coming to him. Nothing. And you will go through
the press and you'll get to Christ and you'll touch the hem of his
garment. It's a sad fact, but it's true. that we can't comprehend very
much about God. The smartest theologian that
ever lived cannot explain the hypostatic union of the Lord
Jesus Christ. How he can be 100% God and 100%
man and there's no mixture. Try to get one of them to explain
the Trinity. The Father, the Son, and the
Holy Ghost. And yet here, O Israel, the Lord
our God is one Lord. I don't care how smart I think
I am. I don't care how many books I've
read. I don't care how long I live. I know so little about the Lord
Jesus Christ that I'm doing good just to touch the hem of His
garment in this life. We come to the Lord almost totally
ignorant of anything spiritual, and we die not much better. But we will get peace. The next verse said, as soon
as she had touched his garment, she knew in her mind that she
was healed of that plague. And when God finally brings you
into the fold, and you know, you know you're a sinner, and
you know Christ is the answer, the only answer. There's none
other name given under heaven amongst men whereby we must be
saved. He's the cornerstone. He's the
rock. He's the only redeemer. And when you come face to face
with that, then you know, you know here and you know here that
your sins are forgiven, you're healed of this plague. Whenever
you are weary and heavy laden and you come to Christ, he will
give us rest to our souls. That's why he's there, that's
why he calls us, that's why he died on the cross, that's why
he was resurrected from the dead, to give us peace. Therefore,
being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ. Romans chapter 5 and verse 1. We have this treasure in earthen
vessels. We will not know a whole lot
about God, we'll not know a whole lot about the Lord Jesus Christ,
we'll only have a small glimpse of what He really did for us
until we stand face to face with Him. But in this life, in this life
we know, we've heard about Jesus, We've read the scriptures, other
men have guided us, they've brought us to the truth about Christ,
the truth that everything is finished, the truth that He's
the way, the truth, and the life, that no man cometh to the Father
but by Him, and we have total peace. I want to point this one thing
out, though. The strongest Christians the
ones that went through the most seem like the smallest thing
in the world will cause them to snap. Jonah. Here's a man that ran from God
and the providence of God brought a storm so bad that even the
seamen just were scared to death. They threw everything in the
ship overboard. They finally drew lots to find
out who God's mad at, and the whole time Jonah knows who it
is. He said, I'm the one. I'm the
one causing their trouble. Throw me overboard. I don't care.
And they did. There he is. Jonah hits the water. The storm
quits. And here comes this great big
fish and swallowed him. Three days and three nights,
Jonah's in the belly of the whale. I mean, this is a man that's
incredible. And the whale threw him up on
the land and Jonah hit the ground running right straight for Nineveh,
and there he is. He preached all the way. Well,
he went on through Nineveh and camped on the east side. He wants
the sun at his back because he's gonna watch God destroy Nineveh. And he builds him a little booth.
This man has been through a whole lot of things that we can't even
imagine. He got a little booth that he's
in out of the sun. And God caused a gourd plant
to sprout up and come up the side and cover the top. And Jonah
is so proud of that little gourd vine. He's under there. He's
in the shade. And God killed it. And the gourd
withered. And God asked him, Jonah, do
you do well to be angry? And what did Jonah do? He said,
no, Lord. He said, there's so many things
happened that I'm not mad about the gourd vine. No, that's not
what he did. He said, I do well to be angry, even if you kill
me. So Christians who should never,
ever be in that condition, they are. Look at Peter. Peter cut
the high priest servant's ear off, he stood up for the Lord,
and yet when a little maid told him, I know who you are, you
are with him, he cursed and denied the Lord. So even though we have
peace, there are certain times when we don't. But Jonah didn't
go to hell for yelling back at the Lord and Peter didn't go
to hell for cursing and denying Christ because Jesus does love
us. And he knows our failings. And more important than that,
he paid for that sin on the cross. Gone forever. Nobody can remember
that. So the thing about peace is that
we need to pray for it. Don't pray for patients. Scripture
says patients work with tribulations. So if you're not ready for tribulation,
forget about praying for, for that. But remember this one thing,
no matter how bad it gets, no matter when the gourd vine withers
and the sun shines on your head and just about killed you. That
is for a reason. God will bring you to the knowledge
that you need him. So that's what the child of God
hears. And when I go through the press
and I get to Christ, they just barely touch the hem of a garment. First 33, but the woman fearing
and trembling, knowing what was done in her came and fell down
before him and told him all the truth. When we come to Christ,
We are honestly and truly repentant. And we'll tell God the truth.
I've never done anything right in my whole life. Everything
I've ever done, Lord, has been for the wrong motive. It was
either pride or being hard-headed. I repent of all the things that
I've ever done. I'm trusting you. I'm trusting
Christ to take care of these past, present, and future sins.
My confidence is in the Lord. We'll do that. Now, even though,
even though in this life we don't know a lot about Christ or the
things of God, There will come a day for the
Christian, just like there was for this lady. When we will be
brought face to face with Christ. The Lord shall descend from heaven
with a shout. With the voice top of God and
the voice of the archangel and the dead in Christ will rise
first. Then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the cloud to meet the
Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort you one another
with these words. We will see the Lord Jesus Christ
face to face. Will be out of this body of flesh
and will be in a glorified body and their fellowship with God
will be restored. It will be jubilee, the accepted
year of the Lord. We'll go back before Adam fell
and we'll have fellowship with God. He'll speak to us, we'll
speak to Him. We'll see the fullness of the
Godhead bodily in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we'll know everything
then that we need to know. So you see what I'm telling you?
Just like this lady, we had an issue of blood. And we tried
everything in the whole world except the Lord Jesus Christ. But then we heard of Christ.
And the Holy Spirit warned us again and really caused us to
hear. So we came to the Lord. And he
comforted us. And we realized that we are as
a beast before him. And we don't know anything. And then the Lord Jesus Christ
gives us peace in this life and he'll bring us to an eternal
peace when he comes back. Father, we thank you for being
gathered here together today. Father, we know you could have
left us in our sin father, but you loved us before the foundation
of the world father and you had patience with us and you called
us in due time father. and you brought us to a knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Please watch over us, Father.
Guide us, direct us, give us peace of mind, give us grace
to do your will in our lives. Cheerfully, we ask these things
in Jesus' name, amen. Okay.